Charles Chatman was an exceptional running back and safety at Costa Mesa High, but his days as a football player ended while he was on scholarship at Kent State. Now, with some guidance from his uncle, Cleveland Indian batting coach Clarence Jones, Chatman is playing baseball at Concordia and hoping he didn't wait too long to change his focus. "This is what I should have been doing all along, playing baseball," said Chatman, who rushed for 2,500 yards and 29 touchdowns at Costa Mesa in 1994.

After every Roller Hockey International game, hundreds of kids are allowed to lug hockey sticks, roller pucks and caps into the locker room in search of their favorite players' autographs. No one can say RHI, Ltd., doesn't know its fan base. Those little-known signatures may not be worth a lot at a sports memorabilia show, but they mean something to the youngsters who seek them. And their value is even more apparent to RHI, which stages its third annual all-star game at the Pond at 7 tonight.

Silver Charm, who just missed winning the 1997 Triple Crown and finished second last month in the Breeders' Cup Classic, will open his 1999 schedule Jan. 30 in the $500,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla. Robert Umphrey, Gulfstream's director of racing, said he received a commitment Christmas week from trainer Bob Baffert to run Silver Charm in the nationally televised race. "Naturally, we're thrilled to have him," Umphrey said.

Major league owners will not approve Miles Prentice's proposed $75-million bid to buy the Kansas City Royals in its present form, a high-ranking baseball official told the Associated Press. Prentice, a New York lawyer who has pursued the team for almost two years, will be asked to re-form his group, the official said, speaking on the condition he not be identified.

After putting in a full day at his computer technician job, a 30-year-old Internet game player known as Ebaid went home, logged on to a game called "EverQuest" and started his night job. His game character donned armor, slapped on his sword and began slaying beasts so he could make some real money. Hail the rise of yet another strange creature of the Internet revolution--the professional online game hunter. Ebaid played for hours, slaying every computer-generated monster on his screen.

What if a shadowy organization told you it had been quietly keeping its eye on you and had concluded that you were exactly the sort of person who should be privy to its secrets for wealth and power? What if that organization promised the success and youthful vitality of investment guru Warren Buffett and Viacom chief Sumner Redstone, who already possess these secrets? And what if all this could all be yours absolutely free? "I'd think it was a scam," said Los Angeles resident Jim York, 60, who recently received a 10-page letter from a recruiter identifying himself only as Bill.

Green eggs and ham, a cat in the hat and ... "unorthodox" taxidermy? If that last entry in the Dr. Seuss pantheon seems a tad "Silence of the Lambs" for your taste, take heart: Though "The Art of Dr. Seuss: A Retrospective and National Touring Exhibition" at the Sarah Bain Gallery in Brea promises to reveal the "secret" art of the famed children's book author, what's on display is simply grown-up stuff, not nightmare material. Not surprisingly, Dr. Seuss, a.k.a.

Owners of the controversial Riverside Freeway toll lanes are seeking to refinance the private thoroughfare in an attempt to lower their debt and eventually eliminate tolls for carpools, motorcyclists and the disabled. Greg Hulsizer, general manager of the 91 Express Lanes, said if the California Private Transportation Co. can refinance, the move will help push the 6-year-old operation closer to profitability.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday that it has charged two executives of American Telephone & Telecommunications Corp. with fraud for selling securities in the firm that purportedly was set up to offer long-distance telephone service via the Internet. The company is not related to telecommunications giant AT&T Corp.

Cleanup and confession were the dominant Olympic themes emanating from here Thursday as the Salt Lake Organizing Committee named a new president and an American member of the International Olympic Committee admitted giving a job to the son of an IOC member who resigned last month because of the bribery scandal.